5 Social Media Tips for Seniors

Confidently and safely navigate Facebook and other social networks.

Social media isn’t just for younger generations. In fact, seniors are one of the fastest-growing groups using networks like Facebook to stay connected with family and friends. To ensure you feel confident and safe while keeping in touch online, follow these social media tips for seniors:

Set your privacy settings

Selectively choose your friends

Share carefully

Use private messaging

Watch out for scams

Discover more about using these guidelines to confidently navigate social media networks:

1. Set your privacy settings

Every social media network features user-controlled privacy settings that allow you to decide who has access to your online activity. To protect your privacy from strangers, take a few minutes to look over your account settings and make sure your profile is only visible to select audiences rather than the public.

Social media networks allow you to choose the people you’d like to be a part of your online community. When you receive a friend request on Facebook, for example, consider only accepting invitations from people you know well and wish to connect with online and ignore the rest.

Every day, social media users safely share good news, vacation photos, and other updates on their networks. However, a helpful social media tip for seniors is to share carefully. Experts recommend avoiding sharing sensitive personal information, such as your social security number, phone number, and address – just in case they fall into the wrong hands.

Let’s say you want to use social media to invite a small group of your friends over for dinner, but you don’t want to post the invitation to your entire friend network. In this case, you can use private messaging to send correspondence directly to the recipient(s). Learn how to send a direct message on Facebook here.

CapTel captioned telephones are another useful tool that helps people with hearing loss connect directly with those they love. Learn how they work here.

5. Watch out for scams

While social media is intended to be fun, it has also been proven to be used for criminal activity. You can protect yourself by remaining cautious of suspicious behavior, links, and offers that you may encounter online. On social media as in life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

By following these social media guidelines for seniors, you can feel more confident and safe next time you log on to your favorite site. For more articles on senior living and independence, check out our other blog posts and connect with CapTel’s social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube today.

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FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS ANYONE BUT REGISTERED USERS WITH HEARING LOSS FROM USING INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) CAPTIONED TELEPHONES WITH THE CAPTIONS TURNED ON. IP Captioned Telephone Service may use a live operator. The operator generates captions of what the other party to the call says. These captions are then sent to your phone. There is a cost for each minute of captions generated, paid from a federally administered fund. No cost is passed on to the CapTel user for using the service. CapTel captioning service is intended exclusively for individuals with hearing loss. CapTel® is a registered trademark of Ultratec, Inc. (v5.6 10-19)